U.S. Wine Trade Alliance Urges Trump to Spare European Wine From New Tariffs

The U.S. Wine Trade Alliance has urged the Trump administration to leave European wine out of a possible new round of tariffs, warning federal officials in Washington that the measure would hurt American importers, distributors, retailers and wineries as much as foreign producers.

The appeal came during a hearing held by the Office of the United States Trade Representative as part of a Section 301 investigation tied to policies against forced labor. According to the alliance, the current risk is an additional 10% tariff on products from the European Union, including wine, even though the wine sector itself is not accused in the case under review.

In testimony before the USTR at the Court of International Trade, the group argued that imported wine and American wine do not compete in a simple one-for-one way. Instead, it said, both depend on the same commercial system of importers, wholesalers, sales representatives, restaurants, wine shops and retailers across the United States.

Ben Aneff, president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, has led the effort in recent weeks, calling on importers, distributors and sales representatives to present evidence on how tariffs would affect their businesses. The alliance said its message to Washington was that duties on European wine would damage U.S. companies and workers first.

The hearing included testimony from Neal Rosenthal, founder of Rosenthal Wine Merchant; Tim Mondavi, the California vintner and founder of Continuum; and Kevin Parks, a commissioned sales representative for Grassroots Wine Wholesalers in South Carolina. Their statements were meant to show how tariffs on imported bottles could ripple through the broader American wine trade.

Rosenthal told officials that American entrepreneurs built the modern imported wine market in the United States and helped create a distribution network that supports both foreign and domestic labels. Parks said imported and domestic wines are complementary products within that system, not opposing categories.

Mondavi focused on what he described as the indirect damage to U.S. wineries. If distributors lose revenue because imported wines become more expensive and harder to sell, he argued, they have fewer resources to hire staff, expand sales efforts and add new wineries to their portfolios. In his view, pressure on importers and wholesalers does not automatically shift business to American producers. It can instead weaken the same network that sells California, Oregon and Washington wines.

Parks made a similar point from the sales side. He said imported labels often form the base of a portfolio that allows wholesalers and representatives to sell American wines successfully to restaurants, wine stores and other accounts. In the three-tier system used in the United States, European and domestic wines often move through the same distributors and sales channels. If one part of that portfolio shrinks, revenue, commissions and staffing can fall across the business.

That matters beyond trade policy. A rise in costs in the United States could reduce imports and slow inventory turnover for beverage companies, putting pressure on margins and forcing importers, distributors and exporters to rethink pricing and commercial strategy. For Italian producers and other European suppliers, any added tariff could make access to the U.S. market more difficult at a time when many rely on stable placements with American partners.

The alliance also filed written comments with the USTR on what it called the economic consequences of tariffs throughout the wine supply chain. WineAmerica and Wine Institute joined that push and formally asked officials to exempt wine, along with certain essential materials used in winemaking.

According to the group, commercial representatives from several states also signed a national letter opposing tariffs. The argument presented to federal officials was that a duty on European wine would not only affect producers in Italy, France or Spain but would also cut into wages, commissions and business activity inside the United States.

The U.S. Wine Trade Alliance submitted another letter signed by longtime figures in American wine importing and distribution, including Rosenthal, Kermit Lynch and Leonardo LoCascio. The letter said the U.S. imported wine market was built by American business owners and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide.

The alliance said it also met with administration officials outside the formal hearing process to explain what it sees as the cost of tariffs for American workers and companies. Those meetings led to requests for more data. The group said that in less than 24 hours more than 100 U.S. wine businesses responded to a survey it organized, allowing it to prepare a report on potential harm to domestic operations.

Aneff said that broad participation from across the trade could improve the chances of stopping a tariff increase or securing specific exemptions for wine. For now, importers and producers are waiting to see whether U.S. trade officials accept that argument or move ahead with duties that could reshape one of the country’s most important beverage import categories.